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Excerpt 140 from The Lake Demon by Ken David Stewart

Chapter One Hundred Forty:
As soon as Jack finished his phone call with Bobby O’Connor he called Mike O’Grady.
“Hey Mike. It’s Jack Kimberly.”
“Who? Jack Kimberly? From high school?” Mike asked.
“The one and only. Look Mike. I was just talking to Bobby O’Connor. I have a big favor to ask you. Is there any chance I can come to visit you this afternoon?”

“I don’t see why not. I hope you won’t mind a very messy apartment that doesn’t smell that great,” Mike said.
“That’s no problem. I should be at your place in less than half an hour,” Jack said.

When Jack parked his new white Ford Fusion in front of Mike O’Grady’s apartment, he could see that he was definitely in an inner city neighborhood. He saw what used to be a corner grocery store with boarded up windows. An animal scurried across his shoe. It was moving too fast for Jack to see it. He shuddered and hoped it wasn’t a rat. He walked up the rickety stairs that he prayed would hold his weight. One of the handrails shook and vibrated as Jack grabbed a hold of it.
Mike O’Grady’s apartment was on the second floor. As Jack climbed the steps he could smell the faint odor of urine in the hall. He knocked on Mike’s apartment door. Mike answered the door promptly and invited Jack inside.

Mike was not exaggerating when he talked about his place being a mess. It looked like his apartment had been hit by a tornado. Mike’s dining room table was covered with computer monitors, hard drives and an assortment of old computer parts and tools.
Jack looked around the room trying to find a clear spot where he could sit down. Finally, Mike moved a box of books off an old easy chair. The chair was well worn and had an assortment of holes of various sizes. Most of the holes looked like they were from cigarette burns.
Chapter One Hundred Forty-One:
William Everett was looking out his office window that overlooked Lake Okanagan. With a look of disgust on his face he turned around to face his assistant, Max Turner.
“Come here, Max, you need to take a look at this.”
Max arose from his chair slowly and carefully. It was one of his bad days when his arthritis was especially painful. He joined William at the front window. “What’s up Will?”
“Look at all the yahoos out there in their speedboats. Most of them have their camcorders and cameras ready. Man, some of them even have weapons with them.”
“What are you going to do, Will?”
“I’m going over to Sheriff Anderson’s office to pay him a visit. This nonsense has to stop,” William said angrily.
Will went out to his car to drive to Sheriff George Anderson’s office.
When William arrived he found a very agitated sheriff talking to his deputy Bill Rollins.
“I don’t know about you Bill but I’m going nuts. I’ve been getting phone calls all morning complaining about all the traffic on the lake both on the water and on the surrounding roads,” said the sheriff.
“Same here,” Bill answered. “A lot of the people calling in are really riled up. Some of them are actually yelling at me. They are demanding that we take some action. They don’t feel safe.”
“I can’t say that I blame them. Every idiot that’s out on the lake thinks he’s the almighty hunter who’s going to capture Ogopogo. They are expecting to make a lot of money after they haul in the poor animal.”
Just then Bill Rollins turned around to see William Everett standing outside his office. “Come on in, Sheriff. What can we do for you?”
“I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation. As a matter of fact, that’s the reason I’m here,” George answered.
“You are referring to the disaster on the lake we’ve got on our hands,” William Everett said.
“Exactly. What are we going to do about it? Got any ideas,” Sheriff George Anderson asked.
“The first thing I would suggest is that we get the Harbor Patrol involved. We need to contact them and advise them of the severity of the situation,” William suggested.
“That would be a good start. Secondly, I think we need to have a serious meeting with the local media. We have to get the media on board to help us get the message across to the public that this situation is unacceptable and that law enforcement will take action if this type of behavior continues,” George said.